Monday, January 11, 2010

Another Nook in the Woods

This is a cheating kind of blog-i-sode
so just bear with me.

This is what Dave & Ellen's cabin looked like when we first saw it.
In case you can't locate it in the photo, Dave is pointing at it.
We're looking at the back door. Don't ask me what direction we're facing ....
after 3 years I still can't tell if it's north/west/east/or south.

This is the cabin from the front.
The front does not face the road.
A tricky thing to remember.
Very disconcerting for Dutch people who like things straightforward.
I'm taking this picture from down by the creek.


Here's the creek in the summer ....
Gorgeous.


And here is the creek in the fall ....

Gorgeouser.


And here it is in the winter....Despite the beauteousness of the snow,
I do not care for winter.
So, no comment allez-vous from moi.


All right.
Why all these pictures of a cabin in the woods?
And why all these pictures of a creek
when this blog is about Big Star Lake?
Because I have a point and the point is,
this little creek flows into a bigger creek which
flows into the Pere Marquette which
puts us right at Big Star Lake's backdoor.
(I may have this slightly wrong, but, whatever).

And this is my backdoor way of posting some
photos during the wintertime
(which in Michigan is never ending)
of something that is almost BSL.
At any rate, it's most definitely Lake County.

Now, integral to this story is the part where
Dave & Ellen were not satisfied,
and so like the Tower of Babel,
they had to keep adding to their largesse.

As you may recall, Dave is a builder of boats,
and a collector of guns and a whittler of duck decoys
and a scavenger of cork-stoppered bottles of
Dr.Coffin's Tincture of Goat Saliva
and an owner of labrador retrievers that have been
red and yellow, black and not white
(I'm not kidding)
so where do you keep all this crap?
(dogs included)

Ta-Da!
You build an outbuilding.
This is a photo of Ellen saying,
"David, do not fall off that ridgepole!"


Next we will fast-forward
and show you what the building of the outbuilding
looks like near completion
and yeah, it's winter again
and that dog is a random dog that does not
belong to anyone we know.

Isn't that great!
So matchy matchy!
And a big shout out to Mark Kelderman!
So...
back to that Babel story again.

Erecting this big honking edifice was
kinda fun while it lasted but, what next Cheswick?

Well,
seeing how it always appears to be winter in this,
the winter wonderland,
or at least pretty dang cold most of the time,
Dave thought a real live sauna
would be just the thing.
And that's pronounced sow-nuh, BTW.


Let's get to felling trees, guys ....

This is Dave, Della the Dog, and Dale.
We are only missing Darryl and his other brother Darryl.


Coming along nicely with 3 gigantic
250 pound lincoln-log type crossbeams in place
and one still to go.
When the frame is completely done,
then this happens ....


See, you chop down all these trees that have
big fat trunks
until you have lots of round sections
that look kind of like wooden hubcaps.


Here is the cutting area
where lots of chopping and chainsawing
and things of that nature occur.
It all involves a lot of noise and engine revving.

Anyway,
the giant wooden hubcaps get piled one on top
of the other, just like in the picture,
and then you fill in the gaps with some goopy stuff
and VOILA, you have an extra thick wall
and no rainforests were destroyed in the making
of this sauna!


I just threw in this photo
to remind me of sunlight!
and fresh vegetables!
and green branches through the window!
and D & E's hospitality!
and why I like summer better at the cabin,
though it is toasty warm and peaceful-like
with the new wood-burning stove
(which was another project that we won't even get into)
and thankfully the resident bear is hibernating
and no longer leaving monster claw marks on the deck
mere inches from this table
after bending the birdfeeder into a giant letter "S".

The End.

P.S. I will keep you updated on the progress of the sauna.
P.S.S. And the bear.